health

The first flu case of the season has been reported in Kansas, and that means flu season is officially underway.

As KSN reports, health officials say the flu vaccine is the single best way to protect yourself and those around you from the flu. Last season, almost a thousand deaths were reported in Kansas due to influenza and pneumonia, a serious complication of influenza.

According to a new study, 28 percent of people over the age 50 are too sedentary. In fact, more than half of baby boomers don’t do any exercise at all. That’s despite the unquestionable and widely known health benefits of exercise.

Colorado has once again been named the leanest state in America, reports The Denver Post. The announcement means Colorado has held the title consistently for over ten years.

According to the CDC, Colorado also as the lowest rate of adult diabetes, the lowest rate of physical inactivity and the second-lowest rate of hypertension in the United States. But there’s still room for improvement.

Potter and Randall Counties in the Texas Panhandle have been making incremental improvements when it comes to overall child well-being. Even so, as Amarillo.com reports, both counties continue to rank at or below average when compared with the nation at large. A new report measured child well-being in four areas: economic well-being, education, health, and family and community. Texas as a whole is ranked 43rd in the nation.

Texas health officials have deemed Zika “the virus from Hell.” As summer approaches, efforts are underway to combat the virus, reports The Austin American Statesman. The state’s undertaking is focused on controlling the mosquito population.

Eggs are a big part of many American’s diets. And evidence shows that, for the most part, eggs have high nutritional value. Just how good for you are eggs? There’s no question they’re the gold standard when it comes to protein, says the Salina Journal. Research shows a deficiency in protein can hinder your ability to produce antibodies. And high-protein breakfasts may be especially helpful in weight loss because they control appetite.

More than one-quarter of adult Kansans say they don’t have any of five major behavioral risk factors for chronic disease, but the picture isn’t so rosy for minorities, men or people with lower incomes.

On a busy league night in a Raytown, Mo., bowling alley, former auto worker Raymond Fowler keeps up his game playing alongside his wife and longtime teammates.

Fowler, who’s 67, stays busy in his retirement, but it’s not all fun and games. A few years ago, he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and made a lot of changes to his diet and exercise routine, which now includes four bowling sessions a week.

A new scientific paper has proposed a potential future solution to the more than half a million people who die every year in the US from heart failure. Though it may sound like science fiction, humans may one day be able to grow new tickers when the old ones go bad.

In the past year Colorado’s child abuse hotline received over 200,000 calls. That’s a large number, considering this was the hotline’s first year of existence. But the number is deceiving, reports The Denver Post. Almost 80 percent of those calls came from law enforcement, school officials, and others required by law to report suspected abuse or neglect. That means everyday people, neighbors and community members, simply aren’t picking up the phone.

Amid all the political bickering, many good things also came out of 2015. The Huffington Post has published a list of amazing things we learned about the human body in 2015. For example, scientists discovered a virus that has the potential to permanently cure blindness. Doctors are on track to being able to detect schizophrenia by using a simple throat swab.

At least 23,000 people die as a direct result of antibiotic-resistant infections. This number is expected to rise drastically in the future as antibiotic-resistant bacteria continues to evolve. Some experts predict the death rate could rise to 10 million by 2050. Much of the problem comes from the overprescribing of antibiotics.

12 out of every 10,000 Texans are living homeless, reports Texas Standard. And a lot of these have intellectual disabilities. For many homeless, wait times for state services have proven daunting. When it comes to helping those with intellectual disabilities, Texas consistently falls near the bottom in state rankings.

The website countyhealthrankings.org has posted interactive maps showing the health rankings of every county in the US. Delving into the maps, HPPR made some interesting discoveries.

For example Randall County, which covers the southern part of Amarillo, is shown to be among the healthiest in Texas, ranking 27th in the state. But Potter County, which contains Northern Amarillo, is among the worst, ranking 209th out of almost 240 counties. Adjoining Carson County is slightly healthier that Randall, at number 26.

We’ve been hearing for years about the benefits of having a bit of red wine with dinner. But now, according to Colorado Public Radio, there’s even more good news for those who enjoy a glass of wine in the evenings: A new study in the Annals of Internal Medicinereports that red wine drunk regularly and in moderation can help to prevent Type 2 diabetes.

A group pushing for elimination of the sales tax on groceries in Kansas is touting a new study.

The Wichita State University study shows that even before it was raised last month from 6.15 percent to 6.5 percent, the statewide sales tax was costing rural grocers an average of about $18,000 a year in lost sales.

The Hutchinson News has reported a deeply touching story about a mother in Ulysses, Kansas, who finds herself in a struggle for her life. Becky Teeter was always the tower in her household that everyone leaned on. She and her husband Monty adopted two children in the eighties, and their family grew in strength and love over the years. Monty realized his dream of owning his own irrigation company.

People from nine countries and seed librarians from across the country were busy sowing big ideas about tiny seeds during the first The International Seed Library Forum reports the Daily Yonder. The gathering was held in Tucson last week. The group shared ideas and inspiration for improving local access to diverse seeds.
The conference also included discussion of climate change and the role agriculture diversity and seed saving play. Cary Fowler is an agricultural pioneer and a former executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust. He says in the past circumstances were adapted for the crops we wants to grow using things like irrigation and pesticides. He says in the future we’ll have to adapt the plants themselves.

Millions of veterans nationwide now have a card that's supposed to improve their access to health care. But, there are doubts about whether the VA is really serious about the new Veterans Choice program.

The Choice program is meant to let veterans get care from private providers if they live at least 40 miles from a VA healthcare facility, or if they face longer than a 30-day wait for an appointment. At a recent hearing, Kansas Senator Jerry Moran told Secretary Robert McDonald the VA seems to be putting its own welfare ahead of what’s best for veterans.

U.S. farmers are more than three times more likely to commit suicide than other workers, a new study has found.

University of Iowa researcher Wendy Ringgenberg compiled a study based on Occupational Safety and Health Administration farm death statistics from 1992 to 2010. In a recent interview with Iowa Public Radio, Ringgenberg said suicide rates have likely been underestimated and underreported.